Hunters description
For centuries, vampires have owned the night. And in Fort Worth, Texas, master vampire, Louis Riordan, aims to keep it that way. With the help of Lin Tang, his lethal enforcer, he will unite sixteen of the continent’s top master vampires into the most powerful undead alliance the world has ever seen.
Rumors abound that Lin Tang’s most hated enemy, Cantrell Ryker, has returned from the grave and there are hunters in town, ready to take back the twilight. Vastly outnumbered and outgunned, with dissension in the ranks and a traitor in their midst, these hunters fight for humanity side by side. They now have a weapon that could turn the tide of the age-old war between man and vampire once and for all…
And thus describes Hunters, my first full-length novel, released last month by Red Hot Publishing. It’s not my first published piece of horror, though. I did publish Crawl, a novella about giant, carnivorous spiders overrunning a small Texas town and holding off the U.S. Army to complete some chilling plan. That went out on Spectacular Speculations.
I also published Dark Tidings: Vol. I & II at the same as Hunters. The anthologies contain several horror shorts, including the intensely disturbing (according to friends) tale “Next-Door.”
Other horror short stories I’ve done over the years include “For G.O.O.D.” (in Writer’s Bump, Vol. I, 2010), “Collection” (Far Side of Midnight, 2009), “Feedin’ The Fishes,” “Top of the World,” “Cats and Bats,” “What About Us?” (Hand of Horror, 2006), “No Solicitation” (Texas Sci-Fi Tales, 2007), “Red Tide” (Mini-World Magazine, Japan, 1991), “A Shadow in Yokosuka” (Mini-World, 1992) and “Bump and Grind” (SFH Dominion, London, 2009).
Weirdly enough, it took me until about 2007 to realize it was easier to write horror than science fiction. Perhaps my long love affair with science fiction, dating back to 1976 when I was but a skinny nine-year old in West Medford, Massachusetts, had something to do with it.
I found I needed fewer characters, as opposed to my science fiction, which often had dozens of people. I didn’t need to create fantastic new things or try to imagine a brand new world. Like in Hunters, I could set things in Fort Worth, Texas. I had a handful of good guys led by (Dolores and Jesus Montoya, mercenary Marcus Van Niekerk, the lovely and strong Angelica Morales and the always volatile Cantrell Ryker) and a handful of bad guys (Louis Riordan, Lin Tang).
For “Feedin’ the Fishes,” I use just three characters. Even more amazing, for “Top of the World,” I whittle it down to one person.
That’s difficult for science fiction. Even with Richard Matheson’s classic novella I Am Legend, there was only Robert Neville, yet Matheson had to create a post-Apocalyptic world as opposed to the Hunters descending on a building in downtown Fort Worth to find vampires. Of course, I should point out that I Am Legend is a hybrid of horror and science fiction.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love science fiction. Half of Dark Tidings is composed of science fiction tales. Also available is a science fiction novella called They Call the Wind Muryah. My next full-length novel is Land of the Blind, a massive sci-fi extravaganza.
Hopefully, I will be able to continue alternating between horror and science fiction. One of these days, I may even get up enough bravery to venture into the really tough genres - - fantasy and alternate history. In the meantime, Hunters, Dark Tidings: Volumes I & II and They Call the Wind Muryah are all available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Smashwords.
Author Bio
Gregory Marshall Smith , born in Somerville, Massachusetts and raised in historic Medford, is a decorated Navy veteran. Though sports writing is his profession, in his career, he has been, among other things, a national columnist, playwright, engineer, asset protection agent, editor, safety auditor, fingerprinter, training instructor and sometime actor (Heiju trilogy; Life As We Know It; The Odd Life of Timothy Green; Detroit 1-8-7; Contagion; Walker, Texas Ranger).
He is the author of the novellas Crawl and They Call the Wind Muryah, along with two anthologies (Dark Tidings Vol. I & II). He has had numerous award-winning short stories appear in Farspace 2, Writer’s Bump, Far Side of Midnight, Spectacular Speculations and SFH Dominion, among others. Hunters is his first full-length novel.
Ever restless, he currently resides somewhere in America.
Greg is on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/gregorymarshallsmith
and Twitter @futrboy
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